Title: In Search of the Paranormal
Author: Richard Estep
Genre: Non-Fiction, True Haunting, Ghosts & Hauntings
Age Group: Adult
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
From exploring the Tower of London to investigating a haunted Colorado firehouse and a woman tormented by a malevolent demonic entity, paranormal researcher Richard Estep takes you behind the scenes for an up-close-and-personal encounter with a fascinating legion of hauntings. This collection represents some of the most interesting, odd, and disturbing cases that Richard has investigated over the past twenty years, in England and in the United States.
In Search of the Paranormal is an interesting book. It wasn’t as scary as some of the accounts I’ve read of other ghost hunters or mediums, but to me, that made it sound more realistic. I’m willing to buy a lot of things but when a book sounds like a mesh-up of The Exorcism and Poltergeist and claims all those events are real, then I start questioning the author’s mental state. However, that’s not the case here at all. Mr. Estep tells us about the hauntings in a very down to earth way, and even though he goes out investigating a lot himself, the accounts of the events appear realistic and not over the top. You don’t get more than a few shadows and strange noises during his descriptions, and that makes the book more believable.
That the cases don’t seem exaggerated is a huge bonus. In some cases, the author even admitted they found nothing. From my own experience, it’s often the case that one finds nothing during a ghost hunt. Another good addition was how the background and history of the place was described before the author went into detail about the investigation. I particularly enjoyed reading about the history of the Tower of London – I have visited the place too, and knew some of the history already, but it was great to catch up and be reminded of those little tidbits.
Although not fear-inducing or spine-chilling, the book reads like an honest account of what ghost-hunting is truly like, without exaggerating or embellishing things, and I have to give the author a lot of credit for that. The writing was a little wonky here and there, and some of the explanations of how the devices worked were repetitive, but overall, this was an enjoyable read. If you want to know what ghost-hunting is really like, I recommend this book.
[…] In Search of the Paranormal by Richard Estep […]